Pakistan in grave danger, Clinton says

U.S. concern grows over government's deal with Taliban

April 23, 2009|By Paul Richter, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — In an assessment that raised questions about the future of Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Wednesday that the country's fragile government is facing an "existential threat" from militants who are now operating within a few hours' travel of the capital.

Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the government of Islamabad is ceding more and more territory to the militants and is "basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists" in signing a deal with militants that limits the government's involvement in the war-torn Swat Valley.

"I think we cannot underscore [enough] the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances," Clinton said, adding that the nuclear-armed nation also poses a "mortal threat" to the United States and other countries.

The unusually bleak warning came as militants expanded into territory adjacent to the Swat Valley and as Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Pakistan for meetings following a visit earlier this month with U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke.

Clinton's comments underscored increasing U.S. alarm at how the militants' strength has grown even as the Obama administration has begun trying to implement a strategy for stabilizing the country.

U.S. officials have grown increasingly critical about the deal giving control in Swat to militants, who intend to impose Islamic law.

U.S. officials are concerned as well about other developments, including a recent decision by the Pakistani Supreme Court to release Maulana Abdul Aziz, an anti-American cleric who is accused of having ties to terrorists and has sought to impose Islamic law in the Islamabad region. Clinton's concern was echoed by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, who said he was alarmed by predictions "that Pakistan could collapse in as little as six months." Clinton called on Pakistanis, Pakistani-Americans and others in the diaspora to "speak out forcefully" change the attitudes of the Pakistani government.

"I don't hear that kind of outrage or concern coming from enough people that would reverberate back within the highest echelons of the civilian and military leadership," she said.

U.S. officials have been trying to strengthen their ties with the Pakistani officials. Last week they presided at a donor's conference in Tokyo that raised as much as $5 billion in new aid for Pakistan. Next month, President Asif Ali Zardari will travel to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama.

Yet the relationships with both the civilian and military officials have been complex.

Clinton said some Pakistanis were open to the return of Sharia law in the tribal regions because their national judicial system is "corrupt" and does not function in the countryside.

"If you talk to the people in Pakistan, they don't believe the state has a judiciary system that works," she said.

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, insisted that Clinton's assessment was incorrect.

He said in a CNN interview that the Swat Valley, though 60 miles from Islamabad, is ringed by mountains and isolated. He said the government was trying to bring peace by reaching accommodations with tribal groups, just as the U.S. forces did in Iraq.

"To think that that strategy somehow represents an abdication of our responsibility towards our people and towards the security of our country and the region is incorrect," Haqqani said.

Testifying on another subject, Clinton signaled that the administration was in no hurry to further ease relations with Cuba, despite the flurry of seemingly positive signs between the two countries in recent days.

She noted that although President Raul Castro said last week, in an apparent shift, that Cuba was open to discussing all topics with the United States, his brother, Fidel, was contradicting those words.

Fidel Castro, in a column published Wednesday, said Obama "misunderstood" Raul's intentions.

"We're going to proceed very carefully in this process," Clinton said.